title: Visuospatial attention deficits in developmental dyslexia: evidence from visual and mental number line bisection tasks.
abstract: Previous research has shown that individuals with DD (developmental dyslexia) demonstrated a left mini neglect on visual line (VL) bisection tasks, which has been commonly referred to as right parietal dysfunction. However, insufficient reading experience characterizes dyslexia and may call into question the validity of this interpretation, since the VL bisection task has been found to be influenced by reading habits. The current study investigated whether altered performance of individuals with DD on bisection tasks may be attributed to impaired attentional mechanisms or to insufficient reading exposure. DD and control groups performed visual and mental number line bisection tasks, which have been shown to be modulated differently by reading habits. In both tasks, the magnitude of left bisection errors was significantly larger in the DD group compared with controls. This finding suggests attentional mechanisms act differently in dyslexia and supports evidence linking dyslexia to decreased function of the left hemisphere.
authors.affiliation: School of Education and Haddad Center for Research in Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
authors.forename: Yafit
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gabay
authors.forename: Shai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gabay
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schiff
authors.forename: Sarit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ashkenazi
authors.forename: Avishai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Developmental dyslexia; Mental number line bisection; Numerical stroop; Reading habits; Visual line bisection; Visuospatial attention